I say, if one knows anything in God and affixes any name to it,
that is not God.
God is above names and above nature.
We read of a good man who was praying to God
and wanted to give Him names.
Then a brother said, 'Be silent, you dishonour God!'
We can find no name that we could give to God,
but we are permitted the names the saints called Him by,
whose hearts were consecrated by God
and flooded with His divine light.
And here we should learn, firstly, how to pray to God.
We should say: 'Lord, in the same names
which thou hast thus consecrated in the hearts of thy saints
and flooded with thy light, we pray to thee and extol thee.'
Secondly, we should learn not to give God any name
with the idea that we had thereby sufficiently honoured and magnified Him:
for God is above names and ineffable.

In their many different idioms the classical spiritual writers have attempted to throw light on the eternal question of union with God.
Every month we give you a brief passage from a spiritual classic.